Moeen Ali praised England’s stand-in skipper Jos Buttler after he trusted his slow bowlers to spin it and win it in the second Twenty20 against Pakistan.
Defending a total of 200 all out, built around his own free-scoring 59, Buttler relied on his trio of tweakers to deliver more than half of the overs in baking conditions at Headingley after stepping in for the rested Eoin Morgan.
No England captain has ever used as much spin in T20 cricket as the 11 overs sent down by Adil Rashid, Matt Parkinson and Moeen.
“I have watched it 20 times on Twitter – it is just mad! What golf club would you need to get it over that stand? I have not seen a bigger six – the height, the elevation, the distance,” he told viewers.
Moeen, meanwhile, felt a certain sense of deja-vu when the ball disappeared out of the stadium.
“It was huge. But I’ve seen him do that a couple of times now,” he said.
“I played with him in (South Africa’s) Mzansi Super League and he hit one out of Johannesburg! He’s playing so well and is a fantastic player who gives us that power we need sometimes.”
Delving even further into the memory banks, Moeen added: “I saw Graeme Hick hit one here a few years ago, a half-volley off the back foot…he hit Goughy (Darren Gough) over the stadium. This one was just as big.”
